On June 11th, HYS volunteers joined faculty and over 70 students at Hampshire Regional HS in Westhampton to plant 75 perennials at the school! We established a large orchard to the NW of the school, creating a big 'no mow' area, planted fruit trees in fruit of the school, and a shady fruiting hedgerow along the schools western edge. Gazette article about the planting. The students, directed by team leader Scott Green, broke into groups and got to work weeding, digging, planting, mulching, staking trees and sowing clover seed.

A proudly planted persimmon.

All told we put in:

1 'Prok' & 2 seedling American persimmons

1 Cornelian cherry

Asian pears: 1 shinko, 1 shinsui, 2 nijiseiki

5 Siberian pea shrubs

Chestnuts: 2 Chinese, 1 Belle epine

1 Black walnut

2 American hazelnut

Planting a Siberian pea shurb.

1 Rugosa rose

1 Juneberry (A. alnifolia)

4 Highbush cranberry

14 Blackhaw viburnum

3 Nannyberry viburnum

10 American plum

4 Chokecherry

8 Black aronia berry

1 Tremmet's bitter cider apple

2 Black mulberry

This is a big step for a public high school, and sets a great precedent for what's possible in Hampshire County. This fall, as we look forward to a similar sized planting at the HS in the Montague school district, we hope to set a trend in which school grounds become not only outdoor classrooms, but learning opportunities and assets for the surrounding community, offering food and medicine plants as well as demonstrating permaculture planting sites.